BCfm’s weekly politics show presented by Tony Gosling

At five: discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After six: straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers and Marina Morris

For all the shows back to Easter 2009  visit the Friday Drivetime archive page

First hour: news review with Communist Party of Britain member from Somerset Ken Keable and 17 Trades Unions support the ‘People’s Charter’ and the People’s Assembly Against Austerity this coming June. Daily Worker and Morning star newspapers. Religion and politics. Current strength of Russian Communist party. 1956 Hungarian uprising and 1968 Czechoslovakian invasions crushed by force. Also is the Communist party electable? Lack of demand in the economy, Libor style oil and gas price fixing. Former ‘partner in crime’ of Vladimir Putin, Russian Oligarch Boris Berezovsky, is found dead at his Berkshire home a month before he was due to testify at the inquest of Alexander Litvinenko. Motives for MI6 and the Russians for killing him. Michael Meacher MP’s budget speech on Monday evening where he says the budget is designed to dismantle the welfare state, there is no macro-economic strategy. Tory London mayor Boris Johnson interviewed by Eddie Mair for the Andrew Marr show tackled on his character and called ‘a nasty piece of work’ Boris disputes this. Ken Clarke’s Secret Courts bill passes the House of Lords which is the first time in 800 years to undermine Habeus Corpus, that means those held unlawfully in custody can be released. Bilderberger and Minister Without Portfolio Ken Clarke accused of misleading parliament saying the secret courts bill was no threat to Habeus Corpus. Cyprus banking colapse – Faisal Islam describes Mario Monti’s plane full of 10bn Euros flying in from Frankfurt to Larneka and G4S distributing the cash.
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Second hour: investigative reports. Interview with lawyer & former Scotland Yard Fraud Squad detective for 12 years Rowan Boswell-Davies who submitted evidence of widespread organised crime in the City of London under US, EU, Australian and British definitions of Organised Crime to the Parliamentary Banking Commission chaired by Andrew Tyrie. This evidence was initially ‘lost’ by the Commission and after Rowan contacted Mr Tyrie they found it again. They have suggested the evidence might have to be ‘redacted’, or blanked out, so Rowan has published it in full for the public to view online. Mr Boswell-Davies believes that unless the authorities institute a series of criminal trials and convictions of ‘blue blood’ City bankers, the ‘Princes of the City’, will continue to defraud the nation, loot and bring about an eventual collapse of the national economy and the pound. He has identified the ‘Blue Arrow’ trial as the most important city fraud case where the message went out that it was ‘open season’ for city fraudsters, that they would never again be prosecuted. This trial had rattled the ‘self-regulating’ City criminal club and they then knocked back the police and went back to a tame, pre Sir Robert Mark, system of ‘light touch’ regulation by their friends. Rowan explains who should be arrested and put on trial, as well as why and how to do it. TWO EURODOLLAR COLLAPSE SCENARIOS: We then explore, following the Cyprus crisis, two scenarios of a Euro/dollar collapse, one positive where the government get a grip on the crisis and one negative where they don’t. 1. The trigger for the crash, 2. the almost instantaneous crash itself, 3. a few days later the crucial point where the government do, or do not, get a grip on the crisis and act decisively providing cash and food, 4. a few weeks later, 5 a few months later and 6. they cannot say they didn’t know because we have just told them 😉  Jesse Ventura’s ‘Death Ray’ show in his Conspiracy Theory series in the US. Bristol activist Tom Woodhead arrested and beaten up by the Israeli police then deported for peacefully demonstrating. Blindfolded and believes he was subjected to a mock execution.
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BCfm’s weekly politics show presented by Tony Gosling

At five: discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After six: straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers and Marina Morris

For all the shows back to Easter 2009 visit the Friday Drivetime archive page.

First hour: George Osborne’s Budget 2013. News review with Eastville LibDem Councillor & former leader of Bristol LibDems Steve Comber. A green light for UK banking fraud: RBS & Barclays LIBOR and HSBC Money Laundering, how much did they make and how much was the out of court settlement? Steve Comer, former leader of LibDems in Bristol & LibDem councillor for Eastville, reviews the weeks news with Tony and Martin Summers. Discussing cuts in Avon Fire Authority which Steve Comer sits on including a halt to recruitment of fire-fighters. This week’s 2013 budget and clips of (VIDEO): Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne coughs and flounders during the budget speech as he confesses that December’s Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) growth forecast of 1.2% has been downgraded this week to 0.6% – National debt looks likely to double under this government from £800bn to £1.6tn. Martin points out Coalition are fiddling figures to make it look like deficit is going down, Steve says we need to borrow to invest, locally there are some schemes to do this; ‘Workfare Makes You Free’ – Labour Party abstain from obscene retrospective Workfare vote after government and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) caught breaking the law forcing science graduate Cait Reilly to work in Poundland for free; Bristol West LibDem MP Stephen Williams at PMQs about £10k tax threshold; Two Hinkley Point nuclear power stations given planning permission – subsidies discussed, choosing what to back in the ‘free market’; Hugh Bailey at PMQs asks Prime Minister David Cameron to scrap the bedroom tax entirely – Mayor George Ferguson says Bristol City Council won’t evict those who can’t pay; Anglican bishops, with the exception of Nigerian Elf oil shark & city banker Archbishop Welby, opposing benefit cuts – cutting benefits in a crisis stupid, better to introduce a citizens income. Royal Charter to be set up to regulate the press but clause quietly inserted to prosecute bloggers and this starts looking like an unnecessary establishment fix-up.
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download podcast links temporarlily removed from BCfm website due to music copyright

Second hour: former financial editor of the Scottish Sunday Herald now London based blogger Ian Fraser on the Big Bang open season on fraud indicated by the Court Of Appeal overturning four fraud convictions in the County NatWest Blue Arrow rights issue where dealers fraudulently misrepresented the share price. European Central Bank (ECB), European Union (EU) & International Monetary Fund (IMF) or Troika impose one off tax of between 6% & 10% on Cypriot bank accounts in exchange for bailout. Blue Arrow, County Nat West trial, rights issue for Manpower buyout; financial bribes for Libor rigging. Libor ‘Rain Man’ dealer Tom Hayes was known to be the best Libor fixer in the business. Hayes’ pay package more than doubled from $2m to $5m when he moved from UBS to Citi bank, however, he was fired by Citi in September 2010 and in December 2012 he was arrested by London’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and bailed without charge. Separately, he was charged with wire fraud, price-fixing and conspiracy by the US Department of Justice and his extradition requested. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Hayes is now turning queen’s evidence, ‘singing like a canary’, and seeking to prove to the authorities that Libor rigging was condoned at the highest levels at his former employers. Jennifer Arcuri, a close friend of Hayes, said he is helping police with their inquiries. He believes he’s innocent, Arcuri told the WSJ. She added that trying to rig Libor was common industry practice. It was like spanking children in the 1970s – condoned from the top. Libor trader Roger Darin also charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and an antitrust violation; Robert & Vincent Tchenguiz are suing the Serious Fraud Office for more than £200m following the agency’s investigation into their role in the collapse of Iceland’s banks, this case could destroy the SFO. Financial press too close to the city, being taken on jaunts & jollys by them; Cyprus and contagion, painting the European Central Bank as Europe’s new feudal overlord. Interview with Labour’s former mayor of Frome Bob Ashford, who was barred from standing for Police and Crime Commissioner because of a minor offence committed when a teenager. His campaign to change the law is called Wipe The Slate Clean www.wipetheslateclean.co.uk – Strange that senior police officers, officers of all ranks, even Chief Constables and Assistant Chief Constables are not even vetted, many have serious criminal offences on their record and new recruits are not vetted. Marina Morris Voxpop where she asks whether or not you actually trust the police, Jimmy Savile and phone hacking have undermined trust in the police for many Bristolians. International stories briefly covered with Old Labour Oxford economist Martin Summers: Texan man elected in Istanbul as Syrian opposition ‘Prime Minister’ Ghassan Hitto; appears that chemical weapons have been used near Allepo in Syria by the Free Syrian Army, UN investigating. US and NATO preparing for intervention in Syria. Iraq war started ten years ago this week on WMD lies from German secret service BND’s agent Rafed Al Janabi, codename ‘Curveball’.
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Fri15Mar

BCfm’s weekly politics show presented by Tony Gosling

At five: discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After six: straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers and Marina Morris

For all the shows back to Easter 2009 visit the Friday Drivetime archive page.

First hour: Bedroom tax; Kingswood Tory MP Chris Skidmore blames Labour for NHS failings at Prime Minister’s Questions; Introduction to Mark Wright, Lib Dem councillor for Cabot ward. Discussion includes former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne going to prison, Schools minister David Laws’ £40,000 MP’s Expenses scandal fine, LibDem leader Nick Clegg overturning LibDem party democracy on secret courts and the LibDem spring conference.  Martin Summers is asked what he thinks about next week’s budget and the wisdom of cuts. Clip of Liam Fox and his cutting tax and benefits plans for the economy. Universal credit & the more developed Citizen’s income as proposed by the Green party here in the UK and newly elected Grillo in Italy. PMQ clip of Miliband and Cameron on the bedroom tax from last week vs. the way Cameron is treating the bankers. Discussion including  how the local council and housing associations will probably pick up the debt of rent arrears. PMQ clip of Ian Murray – will the PM personally benefit from millionaires tax cut?  NHS Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson is determined to rub the public’s noses in his invincibility and contempt for his critics according to the Daily Mail. He says he wants to support whistleblowers but his new deputy, Dame Barbara Hakin stands accused of helping to authorise £500,000 to silence a hospital chief executive who was sacked after warning that targets were threatening lives. Councillors for hire who give firms planning advice One Tory councillor in East Devon, Graham Brown, boasted: “If I can’t get planning, nobody will.” The councillor claimed he preferred to keep a low profile, but had “access to all the right people for the right clients”. He added: “[I] don’t come cheap. I mean, there are jobs that I do for £1,000, and there are jobs that I do for £20,000 … if I turn a greenfield into a housing estate and I’m earning the developer two or three million, then I ain’t doing it for peanuts.” The Daily Telegraph’s investigation also looked at the activities of Indigo Public Affairs, a lobbying company. In Newcastle, Greg Stone, a Liberal Democrat councillor who works for the firm, boasted that the company had “a good chance that via our network someone will know someone who knows somebody” at every council. “Tricks of the trade” used to gain approval for developments included making sure planning committees included “friendly faces”, he said. New head of legal services at Bristol City Council Liam Nevin spent more than 23,000 of taxpayers’ money on an attempt to ban the press from reporting details of a controversial fostering case. New Pope, a German Jesuit from Argentina. The Archbishop and the oil sharks: A ‘slick’ young Justin Welby, Elf Oil the crooked ‘Monsieur Africa’ and a £6bn mission to snap Nigeria’s oil riches – with catastrophic results.
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download podcast links temporarlily removed from BCfm website due to music copyright

Second hour: Kevin Phillips, chair of the Avon and Somerset Police Federation, discusses the recent vote on whether police would strike or not. Vote was 69% locally & 81% nationally in favour of the right to strike. Drusilla Sharpling, from HMIC, says police appeared to be reluctant to investigate Savile because of his high public profile in this week’s report. The Jimmy Savile case, phone hacking, Hillsborough, the police are discrediting themselves. Why aren’t fraudulent bankers & traders being arrested, in Iran fraudsters are being executed Low morale in the police. Round up of international news with Martin Summers: As the smoke clears after Saudi Arabia’s latest mass execution by firing squad… Charles and Camilla fly in. The Prince isn’t expected to raise the issue of human rights with his hosts. Perhaps he should. Queen’s Sri Lanka visit for Commonwealth CHOG meeting ‘grotesque’. Disaster in Syria as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov flies into London to talk to Foreign Secretary William Hague, believes UK will break international law if we supply weapons to non-governmental actors, or terrorists, in Syria, particularly embarrassing because they kidnapped UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights, Syrian army seem to be winning the ‘civil war’. 9/11 ‘mastermind’ living in posh Bristol City Centre flat? Correction. No, his flat is, in fact, in London. Security records of cars passing through a checkpoint at the Prestancia gated community indicated that Mr Abdulaziz al-Hijji and his wife Anoud’s home, 4224 Escondito Circle, Prestancia, Sarasota, Florida, had been visited a number of times by Mohamed Atta, the leader of the 19-strong hijack team, who piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in 2001. The logs also indicated that Marwan Al-Shehhi, who crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, and Ziad Jarrah, who was at the controls of United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, had visited the house. A decade after the world’s worst terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of 3,000 people, Mr al-Hijji is resident in London, working for the European subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company. Described as a career counsellor, he is based in the offices of Aramco Overseas Company UK Limited. Israeli president Shimon Peres comes to the EU to try to persuade them to ban Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Royal visits to two regimes of the worst abusers of human rights in the world. The death, possibly by CIA poisoning, of Hugo Chavez, land reform and fantastic results of his government for general health and wellbeing. Mike Birkin from Friends of the Earth discusses EDF Energy pulling out of a court case where they were attempting to sue protesters. Sustainable energy and the Energy Bill. Japan betrayed to help US fight Russia at the end of World War Two: 1992 BBC Horizon documentary ‘Hitler’s Bomb’ & Carter Hydrick’s book Critical Mass, about the 1945 US/Nazi Uranium & Plutonium deal
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